


The Day is Here

by Carbon65



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: 1899 Strike, Angst, Character Study, Do not post on another site, Drabble Collection, Ensamble - Freeform, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-08-23 22:36:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20247139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carbon65/pseuds/Carbon65
Summary: Drabbles for Strike Day 2019





	The Day is Here

**Jack**

He wants to go home. He doesn’t know where home is. He wants to go anywhere but here. He wants to run until he finds a safe place. He wants a place where there’s enough food and the water is clean and he doesn’t have to worry about whether or not he… they… will make it through the winter. He could run there: Santa Fe. He has faith. Except, what if he runs and its not a fairy tale? Another Jack stood against a giant, why shouldn’t he? He can make the fairy tale come true. This could become home.

* * *

**David**

He wants to go home. He wants to take Les and go back to school… back to the apartment… the synagog… the neighborhood. He can’t do this.  
They have to.

The neighbors helped as long as they could. But, they have mouths to feed, and apartments to keep and can’t afford their neighbor’s son’s high school when he could work. Jealous as he is, it’s hard to ignore the whispers of the unionists and their promise that if they stand together, they cannot be broken. Maybe if his father had a union, he and Les would still be at home.

* * *

**Katherine**

They tell her to go home, where she belongs. They tell her to take Bill or Darcy and go to the theater, where she can be appropriately titillated by things that are not appropriate for delicate females. She used to like the feeling of forgoing morals and marriageability for a byline. She doesn’t care about morals or marriageability now. She cares that she can make a difference, that there is news and someone needs to report it. And, instead, the men laugh. The only thing funnier than a story about striking newsies is a girl reporter trying to tell it.

* * *

**Joe**

He is afraid for his home. Not truly afraid; it has been a long time since he was truly afraid that he might be that poor again. But, he remembers how fast fortunes can change. He remembers staking his worth as a soldier against passage across the ocean. He never wants that to happen again. He never wants to be poor. If you’re not making more money, you’re losing it. That’s what he’s learned. And, without another war… yes, raising the price on the Newsies ought to increase profits. And increasing profits will keep his family in their home.

* * *

**Les**

He can’t wait to go home! Sarah will never believe what’s happening now. They’re going on strike! At first, he was excited to be a newsie. He got to run around New York with David, which is so much better than school. It’s not boring, but the routine… he wants excitement! And, now, they’re a union. He knows what a union is, he hears Sarah and Tate when they think Meme isn’t listening. A union protects workers. And now, the union is playing Strike, like its a game. It feels like a game. But, it feels like a promise, too.

* * *

**Race**

He’s the king in his castle, and this is his house. They’re in the paps, and that’s what matters. Ain’t nobody can take that from them. It doesn’t matter that Crutchie got taken. It doesn’t matter that Jacky Boy is missing. It doesn’t matter that the world is offering $2 a day to scab. You know why they call them scabbers? ‘Cause that’s all they’ve for skin got after the union is done. None of that other stuff matters, none of it can matter. They need to stay positive. They gotta believe they’re equal to the kings of New York.

* * *

**Crutchie**

He’s afraid he won’t ever go home. He’s afraid he’ll die here, in the damp and the darkness. His body is a bruise and he can barely drag himself out of bed for inspection. If he doesn’t walk to the dining room, he doesn’t get food. When he tries, the world goes white and black. The others wouldn’t be so bad off… but the others wouldn’t have been caught. The others could have run…

He’s afraid he will never see the sun, never see the others, never see Jack. He is afraid he will die alone in this hell hole.

* * *

**Medda**

Her theater is her home, and she’s happy to share it. The boys need a place to go, and she can give them one. She knows this will change things. She can feel it in her bones. If the rich and powerful are forced to take a rag-tag band of boys seriously, then perhaps they will be forced to take a black woman seriously, too. She cares because it matters. But, she cares because change here could mean change for everyone. And, she’s ready for a change, and not just from her street clothes to her costume for her song.

* * *

**Spot**

He’d had to leave the band at home. There was supposed to be a band, to lead them in from Brooklyn. But they couldn’t get the permit. He’d lead them over the bridge to the rally, faded red suspenders glowing in the twilight. They’re red with dried blood, now. They’re all standing for arraignment. He tries to stand for and by his boys. He doesn’t know if it will be worth it. Jack Kelly, scab extraordinaire sure doesn’t. And, that makes Spot’s blood boil. He wouldn’t be here except for Jack. Judas Kelly is betraying them without even a kiss.

* * *

**Sarah**

She knows a woman is more than her hearth and her home. She stands in the square with hundreds of workers. There are the newsies, yes. But also the telegraph boys and the shoe shiners and the grocery boys. There are little mothers with their sisters on their hips and girls with factory pale skin. She sees crosses and kippahs; hears spanish, gaelic, and yiddish, german, and a hundred more. They’re here because it matters, because they matter. They are workers: boys, and girls too. Together, they stopped the city. Today, they won. Tomorrow, they will go back to work. 


End file.
